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The Elimination Challenge this week brings with it a reward that makes $5,000 look like a drop in the bucket. The winner of this particular event earns $25,000, which is 25% of what overall winners have won in seasons past. Why is this challenge so lucrative? It’s one giant Target ad. I wish I were joking. This is as whore-ish as television gets. Those of you who read our Survivor recaps at BOP remember our outrage over Gulliver’s Travels, which was a “reward” for the winners of a certain challenge. What Top Chef does with Target is sluttier than anything any Kardashian sister has ever done.

After having their knives taken away (you heard me), Contestants are given three hours in a Target store wherein they must accumulate anything needed to serve a dish to the judges as well as 100 Target employees. All of this takes place during hours in which Target is closed, meaning the actual dish will be served around 4 AM. Before we get to that point, however, chefs have to acquire pots, pans, plates, utensils, grills, napkins, cutlery, portable ovens et al. They have the run of an entire Target, but they also have the frustration of starting from scratch in a massive store they’ve never frequented previously.

Some of them handle this better than others. After his recent Quickfire victory, Dale has placed the nightmare of the previous two Elimination Challenges behind him. He has a game plan before he enters the store and he executes brilliantly, easily beating all of the other chefs in the race to start cooking. Along the way, he picks up some irons, like for ironing clothes. A pressed shirt is not your highest priority right now, dude.

Richard and Antonia are not far behind Dale; their focus is on attaining each and every item that anything has ever been cooked in. Mike and Angelo form an alliance as the odd couple reveal they have become friends in recent days. They assist one another in accumulating cooking ingredients then cook side by side. Tiffany focuses on what is important in life, acquiring a hat along the way. I love her for this. There should be some sort of extra prize thrown in for Top Chef who accessorizes the best each week. Hmm, maybe I’ve been watching too much Bravo TV.

Unlike the rest of her competitors, Carla is in the weeds. I mean she is in the weeds to an epic degree. Confused by the instructions given, she believes that the presentation of her table is a key component of her dining preparations. This causes her to waste almost a full hour more than anybody else; in fact, she doesn’t acquire several of her ingredients until past the hour mark of a three hour cooking challenge. Carla is in trouble.

Making matters worse is the fact that Carla is cooking a soup dish - just like almost everybody else. Four out of the seven remaining contestants select to create some form of soup, an odd quirk that surprises the judges. Several of the participants note that soup requires a lot of time to create a flavor profile, meaning that the less time a person has for their soup to develop a delicious taste. So, Carla is making the same dish as everyone else while having the disadvantage of much less time to build the flavor. At this point, Carla needs a miracle to survive the evening.

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